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Moray Eel (Ship)
The most common ship in Tyrspace is the Moray, an ancient relative to the more common Eel Ship. The Moray was once much more common in spheres where the Eel Ship was popular, but like the Eel, it was eventually replaced by more advanced ships. Many are still found in other spheres, most often as abandoned wrecks or used as slim raider ships. The minotaurs and centaurs of Tyrspace long ago adopted this ship as their favored craft, and continue to use it extensively in modern times. Crew The Moray needs a fairly large crew to fly and fight. In addition to two men to handle the sails, the sailmaster, and the helmsman, six rowers are also needed to man the three pair of oars at the side of the craft. If the oars are not manned, the ship drops in maneuvering to class D. A fighting crew adds 8 to 10 more marines to man the weapons and another 6 to 10 archers or marines for boarding actions. Many Moray captains like to make multiple passes, using their archers to whittle the crew of enemy ships before beginning a boarding action. Ship Uses Raider: The most common use for the Moray outside of Tyrspace is as a pirate raiding ship. It has a shallow keel and removable tail spines makes it ideal for beaching along sea side beaches, river banks, and lakes from which slavers and raiders can launch their attacks on local communities. Raider crews are most often 25 to 50 strong and consisted of 1st to 4th level fighters. Such ships may have minor helms, or furnaces within which the pirates sacrifice magical items, however more frequently they will use multiple pairs of Oars of the Void, operated by slaves. It is rare for more than 12 pairs of Oars of the Void to be used aboard such a ship (providing SR 4), since in order to accomidate more rowers, the ship would have to be fairly significantly modified. Slavers, most commonly members of the Chainmen, will load as many as 100 slaves aboard a Moray before leaving planet side. Such ships rarely travel far from their ports of call. Military: In Tyrspace, several dozen of these ships are used by centaurs and minotaurs for their militaries. They found the design desirable because it was easy to build and repair, and crews had an easy time learning how to fly and fight the craft. Though a full fighting crew of centaurs or minotaurs taxes the air envelope, Tyrspace is not overly large and a source of air is usually at most a few weeks away. Satyrs are most often used as sailors, but all command and warrior positions are reserved for centaurs and minotaurs. A satyr-commanded Moray is a very rare encounter. Military ships carry at least 25 sailors and marines, and will sometimes increase their firepower by adding pair of medium catapults or ballista on deck. The result is a more crowded deck that sometimes hinder boarding actions. The cargo capacity drops to 10 tons as more space is needed for ammunition. Typically, centaur and minotaur marines will be 3rd to 6th level with a captain of at least 8th level. Ships are powered by minor helms, some still created by powerful mages using the create minor helm spells. Minotaurs use large, throne-like chairs for their helms while centaurs favor low fainting couches. Arcane built helms are slowly phasing out the older helms because of the quality they offer, but many captains who don't trust the Arcane favor mage-created helms. Other Configurations Slave Galley: This version of the Moray features an enlarged bank of oars intended to accomidate a full 24 pairs of Oars of the Void, and is also topped out with a lateen sail in order to offset the loss of maneuverability brought about by the use of Oars of the Void. Usually used by slavers and pirates, in some cases the Slave Galley Moray has also been used as a military vessel. In all cases, this version of the Moray must undertake only short journeys, since it typically carries no less than 70 men, not including any slaves carried as cargo.